Student input requested!
Ultra Vires is once again gearing up for its Recruit Special Edition. And we’re looking for input on how to conduct this year’s coverage.
Alongside the data of how many students each firm hired, the centerpiece of the recruit special is the extensive survey filled out by 2L students. The questions include detailed demographic questions to shed more insight on the composition of the 2L class (complementing the entry data compiled by admissions) as well as recruit-specific questions such as the number of applications sent out, offers received, 1L grades, etc.
If you have any burning questions about the 2L recruit that you would like answered or any ideas on what you would like to see in the upcoming Recruit Special, please email [email protected].
For example, previous articles have focused on the impact of 1L grades on recruit success, correlations between success in the different 1L classes, and recommendations for future students undergoing the recruit. For other examples of typical Recruit Special coverage, you can access prior Recruit Specials (as far back as 2014) at ultravires.ca under the “Special Features” tab.
In previous years, the demographic and recruit questions have been aggregated into one omnibus anonymous survey. This allowed for statistical analysis showing whether any demographic factors were predictive of recruit success. However, historically, the only significant predictive factors have been 1L GPA and being in the JD/MBA program. (And even then, these factors were associated only with OCI success, not with recruit success. See last year’s article “Factors Associated with 1L Grades and Recruit Success: Nothing predicts anything” for more details). Crucially, none of the demographic factors have shown any significant correlation over several years of data.
On the flip side, combining the two sets of questions reduced students’ privacy and potentially allowed their 1L grades and recruit success to be linked to their personal identity – especially for those students with distinctive demographic profiles. While UV tries its best to eliminate the chances of any given student being identified (the precautions will be the subject of an entire forthcoming article) there is always the risk that a student’s responses could be traced back to them personally. Given the sensitive nature of some of the questions asked, this risk could understandably cause some students to decline to answer certain questions (or decline to fill out the survey entirely).
Because we want the survey to honestly reflect students’ experience with the recruit, this year, UV is planning to separate the demographic and recruit surveys. The demographic survey will contain detailed questions about age, sex, race, income, debt, etc. The recruit survey will ask about 1L grades, extracurriculars, applications, OCIs, in-firms, etc. If you have any thoughts on the change, please contact us at [email protected].
Ultimately, we are only as good as the data we collect, and we can only collect the right data if we know which questions to ask. Please help us make this Recruit Special the best one yet.
